Big Voice, Defying Gravity

Idina Menzel at Radio City Music Hall

Idina Menzel performing at Radio City Music Hall in New York on Monday night.Credit
Ruby Washington/The New York Times

Midway through her Radio City Music Hall concert on Monday evening, Idina Menzel expressed her displeasure at reading a description of her voice as “screechy.” That’s not a word any soprano could appreciate, and in Ms. Menzel’s case, it isn’t even accurate.

The sound she creates when she belts in her high soprano register is a primal cry embedded in her being that insists that we listen and pay attention. Depending on the song, it can sound babyish and demanding, or it can sound grand and imperial. For Ms. Menzel, that cry, whether she likes it or not, is money in the bank, because it insists on an emotional response. When applied to a song like “Defying Gravity,” her signature piece from “Wicked” and the concert’s opening number, it is a triumphant proclamation of ultimate liberation from your demons.

A more appropriate word for Ms. Menzel’s full-volume soprano is loud. And she cited the great Ethel Merman as the original big, female Broadway voice, paying her tribute with a medley that included “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “Anything Goes” and “Everything’s Coming Up Roses.” The phrase “sack of gold” from “There’s No Business Like Show Business” was sung twice, the first time demurely and the second time belted to the rafters the way Merman might have done it, had she been a soprano.

Ms. Menzel is in the slightly absurd position of being a 43-year-old symbol of tween girl power, following the one-two punch of “Defying Gravity” and “Let It Go,” her recent hit from the multimillion-selling soundtrack of “Frozen.” She identified them as songs of empowerment, but hastened to explain that she didn’t always feel that way and that there were mornings when she had difficulty getting out of bed. And the personality she presented onstage was quirky, high-strung and far from angelic.

Singing with a large orchestra directed by Rob Mounsey, Ms. Menzel went out of her way to emphasize her grown-up aspirations. There was a medley of two songs about prostitution: Cole Porter’s “Love for Sale” and the Police’s “Roxanne.” Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now,” Radiohead’s “Creep” and U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” were offered as rebuttals to her anthems of unlimited optimism. They suggested that Ms. Menzel is not comfortable being a tween or children’s idol and would like to be an adult-contemporary star in the Barbra Streisand mode.

Ms. Menzel gave her all to “Always Starting Over” and “You Learn to Live Without,” two sturdy ballads from her current Broadway show, “If/Then,” for which she was nominated for a Tony for best performance by an actress in a musical. She lost to Jessie Mueller from “Beautiful.” That loss obviously stung, because Ms. Menzel insisted on giving the acceptance speech we might have heard had she won.